そう
そう (な adjective)
Looks like
な Adjectives/Verb ます stem + そう(に/な)
い Adjectives: drop final い + そう(に/な)
そう is な adjective that attaches to the ます stem of a verb. It is very similar to よう, but it explicitly expresses an opinion from visual information. Its kind of like the difference between “looks like” and “seems like”.
Since it is a な adjective, we can use it as an adjective with な and as an adverb with に:
- 泣きそうな顔 – A face that looks like it’s going to cry.
- 悲しそうな人 – A sad looking person.
- 勉強しそうな人 – A person that looks like they study.
- 嬉しそうに話した – Talked about like they were happy. (Looked happy while talking).
そう・よう comparison
- 降りそうな天気だ – The weather looks like it’s going to rain.
- 雨が降るような天気だ- Weather that’s like it’s going to rain.
- ご飯を食べそうな顔 – A face that looks like its about to eat food.
- ご飯を食べるような顔 – A face that’s like its eating food.
see also:ようだ
そうだ (Looks like)
It looks like
Verbs: Verb ます stem + そうだ
い Adjectives: Remove final い + そうだ
な Adjectives + そうだ
いい: よさそうだ
This そうだ is almost identical to ようだ。It is used to express what you think something looks like. This is usually based on outward, visible appearances. It is very important that you drop the final い from い adjectives.
- 若そうな人が来た – A young looking person came.
- 彼は退屈しそうだ。- He looks bored.
- その人は子供を殴りそうになった。- That person (Became that) looked like he was going to punch a kid.
- くもはいなさそうだ – It doesn’t look like there’s any spiders.
- 美味しそうだ – That looks delicious.
いい changes to よさそうだ。ない (and any word with 1 sound left) may also change to Xさそう (easier to say/hear). Except for (probably) よさそう, it’s grammatically wrong, but sounds better. You can read (Japanese) about it here.
- その自転車はよさそうだ – That bicycle looks good.
- 誰もいなさそうだ。- Doesn’t look like anybody’s here.
そうだ (Heard)
I heard
Plain form verbs/い adjectives + そうだ
な Adjectives/Nouns + だそうだ
いい: いいだそうだ
The I heard そうだ is painfully similar to the “seems like” そうだ, especially for い adjectives. The easiest way to remember the difference is that the “I heard” そうだ Attaches to an already complete plain form sentence. In other words そうだ here goes after a quote (turned into plain form).
- 美味しいそうだ – I heard it’s delicious.
- くもはいないそうだ – I heard there are no spiders.
- 静だそうだ – I heard it’s quiet.
- 猫だったそうだ – I heard it was a cat.
- お客が来たそうだ – I heard a guest has come.
See also らしいだ